Electronic commerce has become increasingly popular with consumers as the accessibility and ease of placing orders electronically or via the Internet continues to improve. At the same time, network-based retailers have continued to expand the availability of products and items available for purchase, lease, or other type of acquisition, electronically or via the Internet to thousands, or even millions, of items. As a result, consumers may choose from an unprecedented variety of items without leaving the home. In order to offer this wide selection of items, some retailers maintain numerous strategically placed fulfillment centers or other physical storage facilities that store items. After a consumer has placed an order for an item electronically or via the Internet, an order is received at the storage facility, and the item is shipped from the storage facility to the consumer.
One way retailers may differentiate their service from others is the delivery model. For example, some retailers may provide high accuracy in their orders and speed in delivery. Error can be introduced when humans or deficient technology perform inventory management. For example, items are miscounted, or incorrectly shipped or stored. This may lead to frustrated consumers, expense on shipping and storage, and delays in an order. Furthermore, a quicker method of inventory management is desired to encourage faster delivery from the fulfillment center to the consumer or business.
These and other features will now be described with reference to the drawings summarized above. Throughout the drawings, reference numbers may be re-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements. The drawings are provided to illustrate example embodiments described herein and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Note that the relative dimensions of the following figures may not be drawn to scale.